Adult literacy in the United States

Here’s a conundrum: The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is a complex document with a large body of information from which one can draw inferences and conclusions. It concludes that only 13% of American college graduates (in 2003) “can perform complex and challenging literacy activities.”

Among those activities would be the ability to understand the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. In other words, only 13% of the public is capable of understanding that only 13% of the public is capable of understanding the assessment.

I am going to draw some inferences about that in the post that appears below this one. I wanted to keep this post short, as I know full well that if an entire post does not appear on the screen when someone clicks on this site, readership falls off dramatically. Longer posts are like homework assignments.

I don’t fancy that people should read what I write. That’s a narcissistic notion. Rather, I simply know that if I write beyond a few short paragraphs, people don’t read. That’s all.